World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Numbers 21
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The , the king of , who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took some of them . Israel a to , and said, "If you will indeed this people into my hand, then I will their cities." listened to the voice of Israel, and up ; and they them and their cities. The name of the place was called . They traveled from by to , to go around the land of . The of the people was very discouraged because of the journey. The people spoke against and against : "Why have you brought us up out of to in ? For there is , there is no water, and our loathes this disgusting food!" sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel . The people came to , and said, "We have , because we have spoken against and against you. to , that he take away the from us." for the people. said to , "Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." made a of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a had bitten any man, when he looked at of bronze, he lived. The traveled, and encamped in . 11They traveled from , and encamped at , in which is before , toward the sunrise. From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of . From there they traveled, and encamped on the other side of the , which is in that comes out of the border of the ; for the is the border of , between and the . Therefore it is said in The Book of the Wars of , "Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the , the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of ." From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which said to , "Gather the people together, and I will give them water." Then Israel sang this song: "Spring up, well! Sing to it, the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the , and with their poles." From they traveled to ; 19and from to ; and from to ; and from to the valley that is in the field of , to the top of , which looks down on . Israel sent to king of the , saying, "Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or . We will not drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king's highway, until we have passed your border." would not allow Israel to pass through his border, but gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into , and came to . He fought against Israel. Israel struck him with the edge of , and his land from the to the , even to ; for the border of was fortified. Israel took all these cities. Israel lived in all the cities of the , in , and in all its villages. 26For was the city of the king of the , who had fought against the former king of , and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the . Therefore those who speak in say, "Come to . Let the city of be built and established; for a has gone out of , a flame from the city of . It has devoured Ar of , The lords of the of the . Woe to you, ! You are undone, people of ! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into , to king of the . We have shot at them. has even to . We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to ." Thus Israel lived in the land of the . sent to spy out . They took its villages, and drove out the who were there. They turned and went up by of . the king of went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at . said to , "Don't fear him, for I have him into your hand, with all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to king of the , who lived at ." So they struck him, with his sons and all his people, until there were no ; and they his land.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Egypt and Sinai, 1450 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel in and then out of Egypt, at a period when Egypt was an imperial power that also controlled Canaan. The nation is formed as a people with a law before it has any land.
- Egypt
- The New Kingdom at its imperial peak, with a professional army, a chariot corps, and control reaching up through Canaan. Ramesses II reigns for sixty-six years and covers the country in monuments to himself. Egyptian power in this period is the reason Canaan is garrisoned rather than free.
- The Hittites
- The other superpower, in what is now Turkey, and Egypt's rival for the Levant. The two fight the largest chariot battle of the ancient world at Kadesh, then sign a treaty whose text survives from both sides. Hittite treaty form, with its historical prologue, stipulations, witnesses, blessings, and curses, is the shape the Sinai covenant takes, which is one of the stronger arguments for the antiquity of that material.
- The Aegean
- Mycenaean Greece: warrior kings in stone citadels at Mycenae and Pylos, keeping palace accounts in Linear B. The world of the Trojan War stories, whatever lies behind them.
- Further afield
- The Shang dynasty in China is casting extraordinary bronzes and writing questions to its ancestors on ox bones. In Mesoamerica the Olmec are beginning the first civilisation of the Americas.